07/07/21 Furosemide and boules in the night

Not a bad dex might last night - woke up and got up about an hour early, but that's all. I took  a Furosemide yesterday morning because there was enough swelling in my fingers to make taking my Oura Ring off to charge it was difficult and the post-shower ankle swelling looked quite bad. For once it didn't seem to have much effect on either urine volume or frequency, but the ring was easier to get off just now although  the post-shower ankle swelling looks much the same. May be able to take another later this morning, depending on how the plans for the day look at breakfast.

Boules at Tower was good, I got second place in the throw-off (everybody throws one boule at the jack on the count of three, and that determines the teams. I was with three of the better players in the club. My pair played two matches and we lost both, but narrowly. Quite happy with my contribution. And we didn't get a drop of rain although it was coming down heavily as I left home and the forecast was bad.

Boules in the night:

My partner Dean has just delivered a boule. On the left, opponent Mark is keeping a careful eye on the score. Another match in the background. We only had two because many of the members were watching some football game instead. The floodlights are wonderful. I'm trying to get the bar staff to order some zero-alcohol beers in, but until them I'm stuck with Tango as the closest available thing to orange juice...

05/07/21 (2) Dentist, haematologist, sleep apnea

The dentist appointment was fast and efficient. I parked outside, using my Blue Badge to stop on a single yellow line. My new dentist is the  timeliest ever - I've not yet had to wait more than five minutes past appointment time, and today he was even quicker than that. Most dentists think nothing at all of making their patients wait half an hour or more. Anyway, he gave me the all-clear for Zometa on Thursday.

After that I  saw haematologist Dr.Ch in the first face-to-face (although both masked) meeting since March 2020. Regarding the fatigue/tiredness, he's adding thyroid and iron to the monthly bloods (Thursday) and has asked me to organise a sleep apnea test through my GP. His secretary says they need a consultant's letter first, so have emailed Dr.Ch to ask him to deal with that. With the current backlog in just about all aspects of the NHS caused by its transition into the National COVID Service recently, I'm not expecting anything to happen very quickly. We discussed reducing the Lenalidomide dose but decided insufficient evidence to take a chance.

05/07/21 Mushrooms, more sleepiness

The forecast continuous rain didn't appear, and all we had at Ongar were a few showers, not enough to disrupt play. Our scheduled opponents for the Doubles turned up this time, but my partner Brian didn't. Involved with something to do with Epping Rotary Club, I gather. So I played a couple of friendlies instead, and pleased that my side won both of them - although more credit to others than to me. Still having trouble with my high lobs, but I think I've found the problem in my grip. Too much thumb.

The natural historian in me can't resist posting this picture:

Mushrooms next to the Ongar piste.In early July,which is supposed to be high summer. Not autumn, the proper fungal season. It may be climate change,it may be something else. But it's not right.

Later today, a bisphosphonate dental check followed  by the first in-person consultation with Dr.Ch at Springfield for well over a year. After that, maybe a walk in the park and a bite of lunch, or something along those lines depending on the weather. Next dental appointment in eight weeks,which works out as Monday August 30th which is a Bank Holiday.so going for Tuesday 31st instead.

Yesterday I got back from boules and lunch and promptly fell asleep for about an hour and a half. Then woke up, made tea, spent half an hour on my high lobs and shooting on the back lawn, made dinner, and fell asleep again. Didn't even make it upstairs to my study until after 23:00. So any idea that a few days off Lenalidomide might help must take a back seat for now.

04/07/21 Pond, football

I had a quiet morning but then in the afternoon decided on  a long overdue clearing of the weed overgrowth in the big pond:

With Sue's help we  got four barrow-loads this size out.They may not look like much but when they're saturated with water they're heavy...

Here's the much clearer  result:

and here's me hard at work:

I don't know what the big grass carp feels about us removing most of his cover. But there's plenty more under the lilies,so I expect he'll cope.

Dragging that stuff out of the pond is hard work, and I've liberally treated my hips and low back with Deep Heat in the hope of being in good shape for the Doubles match at Ongar Petanque later this morning - if the weather allows. Brian and I badly need a win, but the opposition will be tough...

Interesting thing is that I didn't fall asleep once after all that work. Watched most of the football quarter-final,and even stayed awake through that (I'm no football fan). Could it be that Week 4 without Lenalidomide is helping me to stay awake and fight the fatigue? Seems like a possibility.

03/07/21 Consultation 05/07/21

Nothing much new today (again). Weather was better than expected so I went to Ongar for an hour's boules practice and inevitably got drawn into a game. My side won. I'm having trouble with my high lobs at the moment, they just won't come out of the hand right. That was what I was trying to work on, along with my shooting. As usual, rubbish at first but much better after half an hour or so. No more boules now until Sunday morning when Brian and I have a doubles match scheduled. If the weather allows...

I had an email from Dr.Ch asking whether I still wanted our consultation on Monday 5th to be in person rather than by 'phone. I replied:

"Hello Vijoy.

I should prefer face to face if OK with you. No very specific reason but its been well over a year and sometimes things happen in person that don't happen over the phone, and I think we should give them the chance. I was going to email you in advance anyway about the fatigue, which is definitely getting worse, and me falling asleep all the time really (and understandably) annoys Sue... Reduce the Len dose further or would that be too much of a risk? Any other approaches to dealing with it?"

He replied:

"That's absolutely fine Ian

Look forward to seeing you Monday"

If nothing else I should get value for AXA Health's money - one or two of the 'phone consultations have been very short!

Before that on Monday I have a dentist appointment for my 8-weekly bisphosphonate check, just in case going back on Zometa is having unwelcome jaw effects.

Started the Week 4 off Lenalidomide stage of the current cycle last night.If, as I suspect, Len is the main cause of the fatigue, it should be better this week. I've never yet noticed much difference between weeks 1 -3 and week 4, but I've never really looked for it either. I must get Sue to keep an eye on me and see if she thinks things are any better this week.

02/07/21 Thorley Boules, finger

As yesterday was forecast to be the last decent and dry day for a week or more, we went to South Weald Country Park for a walk around the lake and lunch in the cafe. Not the longest of walks but it's quite hilly so it got my activity well above the target for the day. Got home, did a little repair on the side passage door, and then realised that being a Thursday I could take up the invitation to visit Thorley Boules Club at Birchanger Social Club (out in the general direction of Stansted Airport).

It seems to be a rather relaxed friendly group of players, not as competitive as Tower Petanque. Lots of spectators sitting over their beers. The man in the yellow shirt was Mark, one of my opponents.

This is Peter, the other member of the opposition pair and a very good pointer:

No photo of my partner John, but we won. Narrowly.

The real attraction is that the piste is sand not the usual gravel, and I want practice of playing on different surfaces. It's also very flat, unlike other places I've been which all have definite slopes one way or the other, as well as smaller humps and bumps that you have to get to know. On the sand the boules roll on well from a low-trajectory throw, but they'll stop dead from a high lob. Unfortunately I couldn't get my high lobs to work well last night - either too high and too short, or coming out of the hand wrong and far too low. 

Here's a shot of the sand surface with an end nearly finished:

The place also has a rather ancient black dog, and I could easily have run it over as I drove up to the club. It then took to lying on the sand but obviously understands the game well enough to stay well out of the way of descending boules. It also left a little something that one of my boules landed in, and I didn't realise until I'd picked it up... A good thing that I keep plenty of hand sanitiser gel in the car!

I haven't joined yet but am invited back for a few more times before deciding. I think I will - only 25GBP a year - but happy to leave it for a while.

As for the myeloma, yet again nothing much new except that I am going through a good patch as regards the bowels. The constipation is always there trying to get back and so it needs daily monitoring and adjustment of the Senna, Fybogel, and occasional Laxido according to how things go. And there's always the glycerine suppositories in reserve...

I hardly believe it but another finger split has appeared (right middle finger, on the corner of the fingernail). |Just as the thumb one is healing nicely. Is there no end to these tiny but infuriating things?

01/07/21 Triangle, litter, bitter

The dex did bite back a bit last night - I was awake early and got up to face the usual flood of emails and catch up on Clarkson's Farm. Nothing much for the morning and went out for a local walk around the triangle, taking a black bag and a litter-picker with me. Victor the Veloped walker is just right for this. Collected a lot of rubbish, including a good few lager cans dumped, I think, by football fans on the way home from celebrating in Chelmsford pubs. Me, I can't understand why anyone drinks the stuff. Give me a pint of bitter every time, especially if it's Adnams. This is a lager:

and this is the Real Thing:

Otherwise, pretty much as normal. Activity target comfortably met. Pills taken. A bit of admin work on the Facebook group.  Fatigue hasn't been bad - probably a result of the dex. If so I'd expect it to be worse again later today.